Why Isn't Tinnitus Talked About More?

I feel like this should have been part of the calculus earlier.

Ethical philosophy puzzle. Imagine you can save 10 people from immediate death, but the cost is that one person must hear a ringing sound for the next 50 years. Worth it? Discuss.

Follow-up Question: Why was the phenomenon of tinnitus never even spoken about during my time as an undergrad philosophy major in any course whatsoever, including Philosophy of Mind? Was there just no one in my immediate vicinity who had the relevant imagination or experience?

Left-wing politics lexicon. Race/gender/age/ability... consciousness? Imagine you're cursed with a ringing in your ears at all times forever. Are you oppressed? Do you deserve something? Would you rather be Black and poor and live in a swamp in the USofAmeriKKKa, or have tinnitus and be rich with eternally good WiFi? (The former, please! Can I choose please?)

Fiction. Why has tinnitus never been a part of any movie or book that I've ever seen or read?

I guess tinnitus is rare enough that no one cares?

 

Ringing ears are very often heard in movies, but only for a short duration when an explosion or gunshot for example happens. This unfortunately of course gives the wrong impression to the general public, if only it was always temporary....

Longer term tinnitus has been depicted in movies Star Is Born and Baby Driver, both of which were Box Office hits.

 

I saw Baby Driver before my onset and awareness, so I'll have to watch again. Not yet seen Star Is Born; now I have a very good reason to check it out.

 

The funny thing is that none of the tinnitus depictions in movies after gunshots or explosions sound like tinnitus to me. There are just ideal versions of tinnitus: perfect, crystalline high frequency tones. I wish I had that.

Another recent movie about hearing loss is “Sound of Metal”. A rock drummer goes basically deaf, and there is no a single reference to tinnitus in the whole movie. More than that, the hearing loss is visualized as perfect silence in a pretty landscape. Go figure.

 

I'd rather save all 10 people obviously. The reason why tinnitus is not talked about is that it is not as shocking as cancer or AIDS and shit. There are many affected around the world but in itself a small percentage tends to be extreme cases or takes their own life due to tinnitus.

It is something "harmless" but it does not shorten your life like the diseases already mentioned. Life is a race, some die before the path and fall, others do not even have the means to run, we have to be a runner who has a splinter in the shoe, we will reach the goal but with pain at every step.

 

The same reason blindness isn't a big topic of discussion either: unless you're affected yourself it is impossible for somebody who is not to imagine being bereaved of something they consider so normal and essential on a permanent basis.

 

To Leila:

As a result of COVID-19, perhaps a major change will occur in the Public's awareness of tinnitus.

Various News Sources have reported that 6.5% of the total 30 million in the US who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 developed severe tinnitus.

For an example of a heartbreakingly tragic outcome from this, please Google the Wall Street Journal's Obituary on "Kent Taylor, CEO of Texas Roadhouse Restaurants".

6.5 % of 30 million equals 1,950,000 relatively recent cases of severe tinnitus (and this figure is only confined to cases in the US).

And, we are assuredly not yet done with further hospitalizations; in fact, in the Chicago Area an average of 2 out of 5 hospital beds are still occupied by COVID-19 patients.

If necessity is truly the Mother of Invention, than the only Good News from this may be a recognition of the dire need for a legitimate treatment from such exponentially increased numbers.

After all, won't something have to change when (let's say) over 2 million sufferers who are to varying degrees incapacitated by "Long COVID-19 Symptomatic" tinnitus are told by the ENT Community that "there is frankly Nothing at All that can be done for you."

And how long will this many newly affected people put up with such an unbelievably demoralizing response before they demand whatever amount of medical effort is required to change this?

 

I totally agree with you, and I want to make a video, not very long, to raise awareness of tinnitus (specially severe). Hopefully it gets viral, that is my aim... I do know I may dream big but hey, if we just do nothing, nothing will happen...